Robert Dale Owen
1801–77
Scottish-born American reformer and congressman. Son of the industrialist and social reformer Robert Owen. Grew up at New Lanark, his father’s model village set up to improve conditions for mill-workers. Left Scotland in 1825 to participate in the utopian community at New Harmony, Indiana, set up by his father. When this collapsed in 1827, he edited free-thought periodicals, and became an advocate for public education. Opened a Hall of Science in New York to provide free-thought lectures, a library, and medical advice for workers. Published the first birth-control tract in the US in 1830. Fought for women’s rights for the rest of his career. Elected to the US House of Representatives, 1843. Practised spiritualism.
Sources
ANB
ODNB
Bibliography
ANB: American national biography. Edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. 24 vols. and supplement. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1999–2002.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
